Editing Gerald Templer (section)

==Interwar period==
He remained in the army during the [[interwar period]] and served with his battalion, still the 1st Irish Fusiliers, after briefly returning to England, in operations in [[Persia]] (now [[Iran]]) and [[Iraq]] in 1919–20 as part of a multi-national attempt to prevent the spread of [[Bolsheviks|bolshevism]], which was followed by service in [[Egypt]].<ref>Cloake, pps. 29–37</ref> Returning to England with the battalion, where it was amalgamated with the 2nd Battalion in November 1922,<ref>Cloake, pps. 37–38</ref> Templer was a reserve for the [[1924 Summer Olympics]] as a 120-yard hurdler, although in the end he did not compete.<ref>Cloake, p. 38</ref><ref name=odnb/> In January 1925 the battalion again returned to Egypt, where it remained until October 1927 when it was sent to [[British Raj|India]], although Templer did not accompany them. Just before the battalion sailed for India he had returned to England to attend the [[Staff College, Camberley]], which he did from 1928 to 1929, and was the youngest student there, aged just 29.<ref name="Cloake47">Cloake, p. 47</ref> Among his many fellow students were men such as [[John Harding, 1st Baron Harding of Petherton|John Harding]], [[Richard McCreery]], [[Gordon MacMillan]], [[Alexander Galloway]], [[Gerard Bucknall]], [[Philip Gregson-Ellis]], [[Alexander Maurice Cameron|Alexander Cameron]] and [[Cameron Nicholson]].<ref name="Cloake47"/> In the year senior to him were [[Eric Dorman-Smith]], [[John Hawkesworth (British Army officer)|John Hawkesworth]], [[John Whiteley (British Army officer)|John Whiteley]], [[Evelyn Barker]], [[Oliver Leese]], [[Ronald Penney]], [[Robert Bridgeman, 2nd Viscount Bridgeman|Robert Bridgeman]], [[Philip Christison]] and numerous others while, in Templer's second year, in the year below, were [[George Erskine]], [[Harold Freeman-Attwood]], [[Neil Ritchie]], [[Herbert Lumsden]], [[Reginald Denning]] and [[Maurice Chilton]].<ref name="Cloake47"/> Templer's instructors there included [[Bernard Paget]], [[Henry Pownall]] and [[Bernard Montgomery]].<ref name="Cloake47"/> Due to the Royal Irish Fusiliers being reduced to a single battalion in 1922, and thus promotion in the regiment being slower than in the rest of the army, Templer was forced to transfer to the [[Loyal Regiment (North Lancashire)]], to gain a promotion to [[Captain (British Army and Royal Marines)|captain]], which was backdated to 11 August 1928.<ref name="Page274">Heathcote, Anthony pg 274</ref> After graduation from the Staff College, Templer joined the 2nd Battalion of his new regiment, then stationed at [[Aldershot]], in January 1930.<ref>Cloake, pps. 49–50</ref>

He later became a [[Staff (military)|General Staff Officer Grade 3]] (GSO3) with the [[3rd Division (United Kingdom)|3rd Division]] on [[Salisbury Plain]] in 1931.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=33710|page=2647|date=24 April 1931}}</ref> While there his immediate superior, [[Colonel (United Kingdom)|Colonel]] [[Edmund Osborne]], the division's GSO1, who took a disliking to Templer, wrote a confidential report, severely criticizing Templer's performance and recommending he be retired from the army.<ref>Cloake, p. 51</ref> Surviving this, Templer then was GSO2 at HQ [[Northern Command (United Kingdom)|Northern Command]] in [[York]] in 1933 before returning to the 2nd Loyals to be a [[company commander]] at [[Tidworth Camp|Tidworth]] in April 1935.<ref>Cloake, pps. 52–54</ref><ref name="Page274"/> While at Northern Command he first met [[Harold Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander of Tunis|Harold Alexander]], then a colonel, who was his superior as GSO1, and the two remained great friends until Alexander's death in 1969.<ref>Cloake, pps. 51–52</ref> In January 1936 Templer, along with a large draft of replacements from the 2nd Loyals, was deployed to [[Mandatory Palestine|Palestine]] to serve with the 1st Loyals, with Templer commanding 'A' Company, during the [[1936–39 Arab revolt in Palestine|Arab revolt]] there, for which he was awarded the [[Distinguished Service Order]] (DSO) on 6 November 1936 and [[mentioned in dispatches]].<ref>Cloake, pps. 54–63</ref><ref>{{London Gazette|issue=34338|page=7123|date=6 November 1936}}</ref> His experience in Palestine had a profound impact on him, as he said in 1970 in a BBC interview, "I've felt terribly strongly all my life, from my youth, on racial and religious clashes – ever since my boyhood in Ireland. That was a feeling that which was strengthened by my service in Palestine in 1935–6, the [[Jews|Jew]]-[[Arabs|Arab]] problems: I felt them bitterly in my heart".<ref>Cloake, p. 62</ref> In July 1937 he left Palestine and returned to England, where he became GSO2 of the [[53rd (Welsh) Infantry Division]], a [[Army Reserve (United Kingdom)|Territorial Army]] (TA) formation, where he came to the attention of senior officers.<ref>Cloake, p. 63</ref> In April 1938 Templer transferred back as a captain in the Royal Irish Fusiliers, although he remained seconded for staff duties. He was promoted to [[Major (United Kingdom)|major]] on 1 August 1938 and posted to the [[War Office]] as a GSO2 at the [[Military intelligence|Directorate of Military Intelligence]] (DMI) in October.<ref>Cloake, pps. 63–65</ref><ref>Mead, p. 452</ref>{{sfn|Heathcote|1999|p=274}}<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=34563|page=6562|date=21 October 1938}}</ref> In this role he helped in the creation and training of the [[Intelligence Corps (United Kingdom)|Intelligence Corps]].<ref>Cloake, pps. 66</ref>